The invention described herein relates to a spittle separation and disposal device, which incorporates a drainage pump, and constitutes part of the suction equipment used in dental treatment.
In many instances, suction equipment of the type used in dentistry for removing liquid and debris (spittle, for convenience) from the mouth of a patient during treatment, comprises a separator vessel inside which partial vacuum conditions are created, by an air pump for example; spittle is extracted from the patient's mouth by a tube which connects with this vessel and discharges directly thereinto. Such liquids as are drawn in will then be emptied from the vessel, say, into the sewer.
As concerning extraction of the liquids from such a vessel, the prior art embraces methods that include the use of a drainage pump which is designed to take in liquids from the separator vessel at a negative pressure (the partial vacuum aforementioned) and discharge them in ambient conditions, into the sewer for instance, at atmospheric pressure.
Drainage pumps in prior art devices take in liquid continuously from the separator vessel, and become the source of considerable servicing problems as a result, by reason of their running empty too often; such is inevitably the condition whenever the equipment is started up, and the same condition recurs not infrequently during normal operation due to those periods, of greater or less duration, when intake of liquid from the vessel is either low, or altogether non-existent
The effect on the drainage pump of running empty is that it overheats, and the seals suffer damage.
Another defect which occurs in prior art devices is that foam, or droplets of liquid, extracted from the patient's mouth through the tube and discharged into the separate vessel, can work their way up the tube and foul the air pump, with the result that this pump too suffers damage.
It is an object of the invention disclosed to overcome such drawbacks, providing a spittle separation and disposal device in which the possibility of damage to the drainage pump is reduced to a minimum, and in which backflow of foam and droplets through the suction tube is rendered practically impossible.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a spittle separation and disposal device the operation of which is simple and dependable in the extreme.
One advantage of the spittle separation and disposal device disclosed is that it will permit of eliminating solid matter from the liquids ultimately discharged into the sewer.
A further advantage of the device is that suction remains uninterrupted during normal operation; what is more, the use of a drainage pump ensures disposal of foam, which cannot be achieved with a separator where no such pump is employed.